Pressure campaign secures cryptocurrency executive’s release from Nigerian prison

Cryptocurrency executive Tigran Ghambaryan has been released from a Nigerian prison and returned to the US after a high-profile pressure campaign from current and former government officials, members of Congress and state attorneys general, who called on the Biden administration to intervene on his behalf.

It is unclear how much of a priority Gambarian’s release was for the White House, but President Biden spoke by phone with Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday afternoon, expressing gratitude for his leadership in securing Gambarian’s release. Last week, Nigerian officials dropped money laundering charges against the executive, allowing him to be released on humanitarian grounds and seek medical attention for his deteriorating health.

Gambarian, a US citizen and former IRS agent who is now chief compliance officer at global cryptocurrency exchange Binance, spent eight months in Kuje Prison in Nigeria after he was arrested and charged with money laundering and tax evasion while traveling to an African country on behalf of his employer.

The Nigerian government says it will continue to pursue money laundering and tax evasion charges against Binance (which it denies) without Gambarian.

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Gambaryan has not made an official statement to the press, but in messages he exchanged with FOX Business via direct messages on X, he said his top priority is reconnecting with his family – his wife and two young children – as well as addressing his health issues. While in prison, Gambaryan suffered from malaria, pneumonia and complications caused by a herniated disc, which left him in a wheelchair.

Earlier this month, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes and seventeen other state attorneys general, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, signed a bipartisan letter to Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken asking that Gambaryan be declared a hostage in accordance with Robert Levinson’s decision to return the hostages. and the Hostage Responsibility Act.

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The 2019 law is named after FBI agent Robert Levinson, who disappeared while traveling to Iran as a private investigator in 2007. It is intended to give priority to certain hostages and their families in the U.S. government’s efforts to secure release.

“Tigran Gambaryan is being unlawfully detained by the Nigerian government under potentially life-threatening circumstances. This is not a partisan issue, but a purely humanitarian issue and a fundamental patriotic duty,” the letter says.

The AG’s letter follows similar messages from a group of one hundred former federal agents and Justice Department prosecutors, some of whom worked with Gambarian during his time in government, as well as sixteen members of Congress calling on the Biden administration to repatriate the Binance executive.

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In July, Republican Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.), representing Gambarian from his home state of Georgia, along with Rep. French Hill (R-Ga.), introduced a bipartisan resolution aimed at calling on the Nigerian government to immediately release Gambaryan from prison. . The bill, which received support from thirty-five Republicans and twelve Democrats, was authored by former Florida Rep. Connie Mack IV, who also worked with a group of state attorneys general to lobby the Biden administration for Gambarian’s release.

Mack, a four-term congressman from Florida’s 14th District and the great-grandson of Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Connie Mack, was approached by Gambarian’s friends for help in his case because of Mack’s previous experience lobbying for the return of an American citizen. detained in Colombia in 2019.